~ Researching Russell Co, Kentucky

Genealogy Snack #9

Here’s a challenge for you. How many different formats for an ancestor’s name can you list? Think Google Searching. I seem to get fixated on a name and rarely consider searching for different formats of a name. As I’ve been working through the weekly newspaper clippings for Russell County, I notice that 90% of the names are given with initials – something I would rarely look for in a Google search. A book index might have your ancestor’s name listed with the last name first.

Think about possible nick-names. You can use Google to find a list of nicknames for a specific name. Another great site for this would be Wolframalpha.com. If you enter a name, you’ll get lots of information about the name. Popularity ranking, estimates for the current US population, etc. But if you scroll down, you’ll see a box labeled “Alternate versions”. That box will give you a list of variations for the name you’ve entered. Here’s the list of alternates for the name “Mary”.

Think also about common misspellings of the name. For example: Stephens vs. Stevens

If your ancestor was from another country, or THEIR parents were from another country, don’t forget to consider foreign versions of the name as well. For example – Andrew vs. Andreas.

Once you’ve created your list, consider adding it to your Research Plan for that ancestor.

To get you started:
First Middle Last
First Middle Initial Last
Last, First
Last, First Middle
Last, First Middle Initial
First Initial Last
First and Middle Initials Last
Nickname Last
Abbreviation Last

If you are brainstorming for a female ancestor, don’t forget that often, females were referred to with their husband’s name. For example, Mrs. A.J. Stephens. Think of ways that “Mrs.” could be included in your list.

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2 thoughts on “Genealogy Snack #9”

This is such an obvious thing but a great reminder. I tend to get honed in on one or two spellings and really stay with it or I hope I will use that spelling and variations will magically show up (which often they do but it’s not exhaustive) I’ve found that researching my plethora of french canadian ancestors causes huge issues with this. Aside from the misspellings there are also the anglicized versions of names that people took when coming to the US from Canada. It’s kind of a nightmare. When doing some research for a friend lately her ancestors are Emegil and Algae Blanchard but there’s emgil, emegile as spellings. Blanchor as an alteranate spelling to Blanchard. Aglae spelled Eglae, and aglace. Her maiden name is Belhemeur also spelled Bellehemeur, belleheumeur, bellamure, belmare, belimeur etc etc etc etc >.>